1. Field of the Technology
This technology pertains generally to smart wearable devices and sensor networks and more particularly to a system of non-wearable and wearable sensor and processing devices for biometric valuation such as attention level and workload sensing.
2. Discussion
Many occupations and activities require the attention and concentration of the participants for often long periods of time. Some occupations, such as air traffic controllers, often require intense concentration to account for and direct aircraft traffic safely through sometimes congested airspace. Other occupations, such as long distance semi-truck or bus driving, require the driver to respond to changing circumstances or events over the duration of the trip to operate safely.
Similarly, other activities, such as learning in different settings, require the attention of the students over the lecture period. The ability of a teacher to successfully teach students is normally dependent on the attention level and mental workload of students at the time of the instruction.
Another problem is slow changing circumstances can also lead to a lack of concentration. For example, a health care provider (e.g., pet owner, parent, caretaker of an elderly individual) may have difficulty determining the health status of a person or pet that needs to be monitored.
However, there are limits to the duration of the ability of humans to concentrate and fatigue, changing physiological conditions, insufficient sleep and boredom can greatly diminish the ability of a person to learn or to operate machinery safely.
There is a need for an apparatus or method for monitoring the attention level and mental workload of individuals in a wide variety of settings. Safety, successful learning, health care and other activities that need persistent attention over time can be improved with constant unobtrusive monitoring.